The present invention pertains to a system for allowing a person to board or disembark from an automobile or other enclosed vehicle and to load a motorized personal vehicle into or out of the enclosed vehicle.
It is often necessary or advantageous for a person to have a single personal vehicle, such as a wheelchair, motorized or otherwise, available for locomotion both prior to and after being transported in an automobile or other closed conveyance. Methods currently employed for allowing a person to board an enclosed conveyance along with a personal vehicle require either a long ramp with a gradual incline to allow the person to roll up to the level of the passenger compartment of the conveyance, or, otherwise, require the assistance of another person. Lifts employed for this purpose tend to be both cumbersome and expensive.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, in one of its embodiments, there is provided a system for enabling a person to enter and exit an enclosed vehicle, such as a car, bus, or train, and to load a personal vehicle into the enclosed vehicle without the assistance of another person. Where the personal vehicle has a support, a first actuator for driving at least one wheel rotatable about an axis, and a second actuator for varying the disposition of the axis with respect to the support, the system has a control loop for energizing at least one fo the first and second actuators on the basis of at least the disposition of the axis with respect to the support, and also a control input for providing commands to the control loop of the personal vehicle for governing the operation of the personal vehicle and for causing the personal vehicle to enter and exit the enclosed vehicle.
In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, the control loop may have a force sensing device for governing the operation of a motorized personal vehicle. The force sensing device has a handle coupled to the personal vehicle for grasping by a subject, at least one pressure sensor for producing an output related to forces applied to the handle, and a controller for varying at least one of the orientation, configuration, and motion of the personal vehicle on the basis of forces applied to the handle. One or more of the pressure sensors may be a piezoelectric force sensor.
The system may have a transfer mechanism deployable from inside the enclosed vehicle for supporting the person during transfer between the personal vehicle and the seat and a control input for providing commands to the personal vehicle for governing the operation of the personal vehicle and for causing the personal vehicle to board the enclosed vehicle. The transfer mechanism may be a stowable seat disposed within the enclosed vehicle. The personal vehicle may have a support for supporting the person and a ground contacting element, such as a wheel, that is movable with respect to a local axis, and the local axis may itself be movable with respect to a second axis having a defined relation with respect to the support. An actuator arrangement may be provided for permitting controllable motion of the ground contacting element with respect to the local axis and of the local axis with respect to the support. A controller then receives the commands from the control input and controls the actuator arrangement in such a manner as to cause the personal vehicle to board the enclosed vehicle.
In accordance with yet another alternate embodiment of the invention, there is provided a stowable seat for an automobile, the seat having a normal position for seating a passenger. The stowable seat has a retraction mechanism for removing the stowable seat from the normal position to a retracted position, and a transfer mechanism for conveying a person from a personal vehicle to a seated position within the automobile.